The novelist as tourist: visiting the sites of my book!

As I mentioned earlier, I spent the first part of may in Hungary, retracing some of the sites that figure in my upcoming debut, THE BLOOD ROSE REBELLION.

One of the most thrilling things for me, aside from simply being back in a land that I love, was finding missing pieces in my research--like realizing the current Buda castle is three times the size of the castle that would have stood there in 1848. (This block, below, is essentially the only part of the castle that existed then--not the gaudy dome that everyone knows from pictures of the city).

But there were other discoveries that thrilled me because most tourists had no idea of their significance.

Like finding the Karolyi palace, where Karolina Karolyi (an ardent patriot who makes a cameo appearance in my book) lives.

Or Cafe Pilvax, where the young men of March planned their revolution (though the current incarnation looks nothing like the pictures I've seen). It was just around the corner from our apartment.

 

Or this: this lovely building is the Vigado, some kind of music hall. But it was significant to me because it was one of those aha! research moments. I'd been trying to find out where the Redoute was, a public ballroom used frequently in 19th century Budapest. In a local guidebook our host left in the apartment, I discovered why I couldn't find the ballroom. The original building had been destroyed by canon fire during the 1849 siege of Budapest: this was built on the site.

 Probably my favorite discovery, though, was this little street not far from Buda castle. There are some lovely baroque palaces there: this is one of them, though in the 19th century it was used as a prison to house political prisoners, and I use it in my story as the prison that my heroine has to fight her way to get to. So imagine, if you will, this seemingly pedestrian street filled with soldiers (and maybe a dragon or griffin or two). 

Since I've been gone . . .

It's been a while since I posted--but with good reason!

My  husband and I spent ten wonderful days in Europe (specifically, Hungary and Vienna) researching setting and period details for my forthcoming trilogy (THE BLOOD ROSE REBELLION, Knopf 2016).

Right after we got back, I plunged into three wonderful days at the LDStorymakers conference, absorbing the wisdom of my writing tribe. I'm only now getting back into the swing of my real life. (Not nearly so exciting).

But here's a sneak peak of what I've been working on:

This is Eszterhaza, a beautiful estate in Northeastern Hungary that belonged to the wealthy Eszterhazy family. Sometimes called the Hungarian Versailles (though I've been to Versailles and this is not quite on that scale!), the estate serves as the setting for part of my debut novel.

The beautiful Sala Terenna, a ground-floor reception room where some dramatic action unfolds near the end of the novel. Spoiler: someone dies.

I'll post more on my trip later, but it was wonderful to be able to actually explore the physical sites, to realize the limits of 19th century Budapest, to wander the same streets my heroine would have walked. Setting is a profoundly important aspect of any novel: place shapes our conception of self, the relationships we have with one another, and so much more.